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Freud embraced dreams as a splendid and shining road to the unconscious. Other psychologists such as Ellis refer to dreams as disordered thoughts. More recently Hobson has seen dreaming as an attempt to make sense or give order to random thoughts. In this volume the authors attempt to prove that dreams can be a source of communication, a human link through time and space.
The publication of the revised edition of Dream Telepathy, Experiments in Nocturnal ESP follows the book's first appearance in 1973. This scholarly work presents the elaborate dream experiments performed by the authors, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and a laboratory worker at the Maimonides Medical Center. The book also contains a comprehensive review of the literature of the history of telepathic dreams.
From ancient history and the Bible come reports of oneiromancy, interpreting dreams to foretell future events. The world has always been divided into believers and skeptics. Cicero argued against taking dreams seriously. His words embody the skeptics' position. “Let us reject, therefore, this divination of dreams, as well as all other kinds. For, to speak truly, that superstition has extended itself through all notions, and has oppressed the intellectual energies of men, and has betrayed them into endless imbecilities.” This volume is offered as an answer to Cicero's complaint.
Telepathy, a term coined by Myers in 1882, describes “fellow-feeling at a distance.” The transference of thoughts, emotions, and less definable impressions between distant persons are the essence of telepathy. Dreams of death and distress are the most common themes reported in spontaneous dream telepathy.
ESP of external events is referred to as clairvoyance. Precognition is ESP of future events. What Eisenbud referred to as telepathy, Ellis calls coincidence, and the Jungian analyst labels synchronicity. These various terminologies further complicate an understanding of this intricate topic.
Freud was not opposed to the conce